Going Down Swinging works across platforms to produce high quality publications and events that support writers and artists telling stories worth sharing.
Going Down Swinging is one of Australia’s longest-running and most respected literary journals: publishing digital as well as print and audio anthologies since 1979 and producing special, sold-out live events. We believe in fostering a community of writers and artists dedicated to their craft and the ideas behind it. We encourage the creation of new work, and support this by placing great value on editorial feedback and development for those voices still emerging.
As a non-profit organisation, any revenue we make goes back towards supporting the artists and arts workers who make GDS possible. You can support us directly via a tax-deductible donation and help us share stories worth telling.
STAFF
Co-Editor — Wai-Mun Mah
Wai-Mun Mah started at Going Down Swinging in 2019 as an editorial intern, spent time as Marketing Manager and is now Associate Editor. Her responsibilities include building out the journal’s community, and revolutionising overall product. In their time with the organisation they have spearheaded a number of community-based marketing initiatives, such as GDS Reads.
They hold a Master of Writing and Publishing from RMIT.
Co-editor Editor — Helena Pantsis
Helena Pantsis (she/they) is an editor, writer and artist from Naarm, Australia with a fond appreciation for the weird, the dark, and the experimental. She is the author of story collection, ‘GLUTT’, and the forthcoming poetry collection ‘CAPTCHA’.
Marketing Manager — Mason Wood
Mason is an emerging writer and communications worker originally from Perth. He started at Going Down Swinging as marketing intern in 2021. His work has been published in Voiceworks. He writes about popular culture, dating and sex.
Junior Editor — Laura Charlton
Laura Charlton is a writer and theatremaker born and raised in Wollongong. Her writing can be found in print with Voiceworks and the South Coast Writers’ Centre, online with Going Down Swinging (haha) and onstage with her theatre company, Unspooled Theatre Collective. She wrote her BA Honours Thesis (UniMelb) on tragic temporality, queer time, and Anne Carson. She loves Aston Villa Football Club.
Junior Editor — Xiaole Zhan
Xiaole Zhan (they/them) is a Chinese-New Zealand writer, editor and composer based in Naarm. They are the recipient of the 2024 Kat Muscat Fellowship and a 2024 Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship. They were also the winner of the 2023 Kill Your Darlings Non-Fiction Prize and the 2023 Charles Brasch Young Writers Essay Competition. Their writing can be found in publications such as Kill Your Darlings, The Suburban Review, The Big Issue, Island, Cordite, Going Down Swinging, Landfall and Starling, among others. As a composer, Xiaole is the 2024 New North Emerging Artist. Their name in Chinese is 小乐 and means ‘Little Happy’ but can also be read as ‘Little Music’.
